EVANSVILLE — The Vanderburgh Humane Society on Saturday morning will partner with Pet Friendly Services of Indiana and United Spay Alliance to host a feline spay/neuter wet lab at the humane society’s Davidson Rausch Low-Cost Spay & Neuter Clinic.
The wet lab, which begins shortly after 7:30 a.m., is not open to the public and is not intended as an event for which people can bring their cats, said VHS Director of Advancement Amanda Coburn.
Surgeries will be performed instead on a mix of VHS adoptable shelter cats and cats in the organization’s public community cat program.
Saturday’s event does serve purposes that advance the VHS mission, Coburn said.
“This training will hopefully increase access to spay/neuter for families in our community who need their cats fixed,” she said. “Right now there just aren’t enough appointments to serve them all quickly enough, so this should help alleviate some of that backlog long-term and increase our regional surgery capacity.”
Directed by VHS Veterinarian Dr. Laura Molinet and Indianapolis-based Dr. Nancy Ferguson, four local veterinarians will complete eight hours of Continuing Education — required to maintain state veterinary licensing — to learn high-volume spay/neuter techniques and gain surgical experience with cats.
“The goal is to equip veterinarians with the skills, efficiency, and confidence needed to increase access to affordable spay/neuter services for low-income and underserved communities across Indiana, in private practice settings and beyond,” says a VHS announcement of the event.
“Using proven anesthetic protocols and surgical techniques, trained (high-volume spay/neuter) veterinarians can safely and efficiently perform dozens of sterilization procedures in a single day, helping to meet a critical community need.”
VHS said participants will complete a minimum of five or six feline spay procedures and can expect “close mentorship and individualized instruction, with a 2:1 participant-to-trainer ratio.”
VHS outlined several goals for participating veterinarians, including identifying “key considerations for high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter (HQHVSN) practice, including targeted populations, community cat protocols and partnership resources.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: VHS event Saturday ‘will hopefully increase access to spay/neuter’
Reporting by Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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By Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press | USA TODAY Network
